This device will be a great help if you need to make something with your own hands. A photo of the milling table can be found in the article. There are several options for making this equipment yourself, but it makes no sense to consider them all, since the main function does not change.
Why do you need it?
It's worth starting with the fact that having such a thing as a milling table significantly increases labor productivity. In addition, such a device will greatly increase the efficiency of a hand router, if any. It is also worth noting that ready-made models are also being sold, but their acquisition is rather unprofitable from a financial point of view. The time it takes to assemble a router table with your own hands is small, and the financial costs are negligible.
Using a woodworking tool like this can help a home craftsman produce workpieces with the same quality as they do in special workshops with professional equipment. It is also worth noting that the presence of the device will help process not only wood. It will also be possible to process such material as chipboard, plastic, MDF and others. Making a milling table with your own hands will not only save a lot of money, but will also make it possible to perform operations such as making grooves and slots, etc.
Getting started
If there is such a desire, then it is possible to assemble such a table from a conventional workbench, but it is still recommended to use a separate special design for this. There is a reasonable explanation for this. During the operation of the router, a strong vibration is created, and therefore the frame on which the device will be fixed must be highly stable and reliable in order to ensure the safe conduct of the workflow.
In order to fix the work device to the table top of the router table, you need to use such a thing as a mounting plate. It should be distinguished by a high indicator of strength, as well as reliability. However, if there is no such insert, then it is allowed to use certain pressure plates that will hold the cutter. As for the manufacture of the plate, the starting material can be sheet metal, durable plywood or textolite.
It is important to note that most models of routers have a sole on which there are threaded holes, they are designed to connect the cutter, tabletop and plate together. However, if it happens that such holes are not found, then it is quite possible to cut them yourself, and use a special tool to cut the thread inside.
Device design
The design of the router table is built in such a way that the clamping devices or the mounting plate must be located flush with the table top. For successful assembly of the item, it is necessary to drill several holes in the plate. Some of them are used to secure the element to the tabletop, others are used to connect this part to the sole of the router. For fixing, self-tapping screws and screws are usually used. The main requirement for these elements is the presence of a countersunk head.
There are several additional items that will improve the overall functionality of the device. Firstly, the table for the milling machine can be equipped with a button for turning the device on and off, and also make it in the form of a mushroom, which will increase the safety of work. Secondly, to simplify the work with such a home-made device, you can fix a metal ruler of a suitable length on the surface of the table.
It is also recommended, before proceeding to the practical part, to determine the location of the machine, as well as its purpose. It can be an aggregate milling cutter, which will serve as an extension of an existing machine, with its side saw part. Or maybe a small-sized desktop machine, which is a full-fledged stationary equipment.
The simplest model
In fact, you can design a universal milling table quite quickly. In order to successfully implement the plan, even an ordinary worker will do.a table, as well as some materials, among which is a chipboard sheet. All the main guiding elements of the future design will be fixed on it. An ordinary board with a small thickness can be used as a guide. It will also be attached to the tabletop with a few bolts. Such a board will be used as a parallel stop for the table. If necessary, a similar board can be attached on the opposite side, which will act as a limit stop.
In order to mount the cutter into a chipboard tabletop, it is necessary to make a suitable hole in it. Two clamps will be used to fix the cutter on the table. After all these elements are placed in their places and well fixed, we can assume that the manufacture of the simplest model of a home-made milling table is completed. To make it more convenient to operate such a table model, you can additionally equip it with some devices, for example, simple clamps for a milling machine.
Of course, it is worth noting that there are certain questions about the strength of such a design, but at the same time the cost of assembling the equipment will be very low, and the simplest functionality will be enough for good processing.
Assembling the main elements
The bed and the tabletop are the two main elements that are essential when assembling reliable equipment. The main requirements for the frame are precisely high stability and reliability, because the main part of the load falls on thisdetail. If we talk about design features, they are quite simple - this is a frame that has supports, and the table top is fixed on it. Wood, chipboard, MDF can be used as the starting material for assembly. You can use metal profiles if you weld them together. In order to proceed to the practical part, it is recommended to draw up a drawing indicating the dimensions of the milling table. As for the dimensions of the machine, they will depend on what workpieces are planned to be processed in the future, and therefore each master will have an individual drawing.
The lower part of the bed, which will be the front, deepens by 100-200 mm. This is done to make it comfortable for the operator to stand. The average dimensions for the bed are approximately the following: 900x500x1500 mm (height, depth, width). The most significant characteristic in this case will be the height. According to ergonomic requirements, this parameter should be 850-900 mm. This is in the event that it is planned to work behind such a machine while standing. However, it is still recommended to make the supports adjustable in height. This will help compensate for possible floor irregularities, as well as adjust the height of the machine if necessary. You can also make a turntable for milling equipment. It is quite simple to do this and you only need to add wheels that are fixed on the legs.
A kitchen counter top can be used as an inexpensive and reliable starting material. Most often, a chipboard sheet with a thickness of 26 or 36 mm is used for its production. In addition, it is usually additionally covered with wear-resistant plastic. This coating will provide excellent sliding for the workpiece, and the good thickness of the chipboard will dampen the vibration from work. When assembling a wood router table with your own hands, the minimum thickness of the tabletop should be 16 mm.
Working with the plate
Due to the fact that the worktop for the device must have a high thickness, the mounting plate, on the contrary, must be thin. This ratio will help to effectively use the overhang of the cutting tool. However, it must be remembered that even with a minimum thickness, reliability and strength must be at a high level.
For this reason, this element must be made either from metal or from a material that is not inferior in strength to metal - textolite. As for the thickness of the textolite, it should be from 4 to 8 mm. From the selected raw material, it is necessary to cut a rectangular part, in the center of which there should be a hole. The dimensions of the hole are equal to the diameter of the sole of the cutter.
The holes that will be used to fix the plate to the table must be located at all four corners. As mentioned earlier, the plate, the sole of the router and the table itself are interconnected by holes that are found in each part.
Assembling the table
How to make a milling table? Work at this stage begins with the fact that it is necessary to fix the countertop on an already finished bed. The plate is applied to the countertop exactly where it should be.according to the drawings. After that, the element is outlined along the contour with a pencil. This is done so that you can choose a place to deepen in the contour for the plate. To create the desired recess, a hand mill with a nozzle diameter of 6-10 mm is usually used. This element must be made in such a way that when the plate lies in it, it is flush with the tabletop.
Since to make a recess for a milling table on wood, a round cutter is used and right angles will not work, then all right angles will need to be rounded on the plate. Only after this part is securely fixed in the tabletop, you can proceed to create a hole for the sole of the router. You can make it with a straight cutter, the thickness of which should be greater than that of the insert.
The final stage of assembling the milling table with your own hands, the photo of which you have already seen, is the connection of all structural elements to each other. First you need to start the router from the bottom of the countertop, and then attach it to the plate. The next step is to attach the plate to the top of the tabletop. For this, a self-tapping screw with a countersunk head is used, and it is immersed in pre-prepared holes. After all this is done, you can proceed to the stage of attaching the tabletop with the cutter fixed on it and the plate to the base.
Upper clamp for device
This addition is not necessary, however, in order to make the operation of the entire millingtable more convenient and safe, as well as to be able to process large-sized workpieces, it is worth taking care of mounting the top clamp. This device will be made on the basis of a roller, and it will also require a drawing so as not to make mistakes during assembly.
Most often, a roller is used as an upper clamp, the role of which is played by a ball bearing of the right size. This device is installed on a special mount, which will allow you to fix the bearing at any distance from the table top. With the help of such a holding device with a roller, it will be possible to safely and reliably process a workpiece with almost any parameters.
Drive for equipment
Naturally, the necessary element will be the drive for the operation of the device. High performance and functionality of a homemade device is achieved only if it has an electric drive with good power. If you plan to use a woodworking machine with a shallow sample, then an electric motor with a power of 500 watts is suitable. However, there is a slight drawback here, which is that such equipment can be turned off quite often.
For this reason, a powerful device is considered a good electric motor for home-made devices. In order to use home-made equipment with the same success as professional equipment, it is recommended to choose the power in the range from 1 to 2 kW. In addition, this will be quite enough to use any type of cutter onmachine.
It is important to note here that not only power plays a key role, such a parameter as turnover is also important. With a quantitative increase in this parameter, the quality of the cut will increase. It is also worth remembering here that electric motors can be powered both from a 220 V network and from a voltage of 380 V. If there are no problems connecting the former, then with a power supply from 380 V you will have to use a special connection scheme. Only connection using a "star" or "triangle" will enable such an engine to operate at 100% power and start smoothly. You can also connect it to a conventional network, but in this case, about 30 to 50% of the entire power of electrical equipment will be lost.
Safety measures
Of course, to work with such equipment, it is necessary to take care of safety. It is worth providing it at the stage of assembling the device itself. The first thing to do for this is to provide a home-made device with such a thing as a protective screen. How these screens are arranged can be seen in the photo of professional machines. A mandatory additional element should be a mushroom button. She is usually responsible for the emergency shutdown of equipment from the network. Such a fungus is usually located in the most easily accessible place, but the start button, on the contrary, is usually installed where there is practically no chance of accidentally pressing it.
In addition, it is recommended to take care of the presence of sufficiently good lighting in the place where the direct work will take place. If aquite often you have to change the reach of the cutter, it is better to make an automatic or manual elevator that will lower and raise the cutter. Such an elevator makes using a homemade machine not only more efficient, but also safer.
As for the general conclusions, it is safe to say that assembling a homemade table for a milling machine is not such a difficult task. All that is needed is to purchase all the necessary materials, have all the necessary tools with you, be able to use them, and also follow the prepared drawings exactly.
